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The Longest Journey | 
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| From: Funcom
Category: Video Games
New (9) Used (7) from $4.95
Rating:  197 reviews
Sales Rank: 10840
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95
Genre: Adventure Games
ESRB: Mature
Media: CD-ROM
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 95
Shipping Weight (lbs): 15
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 7.8 x 1.6
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 12893
UPC: 812329000100
EAN: 0812329000100
ASIN: B0000507UR
Release Date: November 17, 2000
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| Features:
| • | Over 150 locations spanning two distinct and detailed worlds | | • | More than 70 speaking characters | | • | Exciting mix of 2D and 3D graphics in high-resolution | | • | Supports both 16- and 32-bit colour depths in software and hardware | | • | Each scene featuring multiple 3D characters with up to 1,000 polygons each |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Before embarking on The Longest Journey, check your preconceived notions of reality at the door. While this may play like a traditional adventure game, the story is anything but conventional. As art student April Ryan you'll soon discover you have the ability to bridge two worlds--the 23rd-century, science-oriented Earth that you live in, and its counterpart, Arcadia, where magic is reality and technology is the stuff of legends. Telling you more than that would spoil the story, but suffice it to say that your ability to cross between the two worlds must be used to save both. The game spans four CDs and needs all that space to hold both the gorgeous graphics and hours of high-quality speech. Everyone you meet has plenty to say, and you'll want to listen to everything because the game contains some of the most brilliant voice acting ever recorded. Each character has such a distinct and engaging voice that you could play this game with your eyes closed and it would maintain much of its beauty, although you likely won't want to blink after your first glimpse of the game's detailed environments. The graphics run at a feeble maximum resolution of 640 x 480 but are packed with enough atmosphere and animation that they look great even on a large monitor. The Longest Journey obviously excels from a technical standpoint, but it's the writing that really makes it memorable. April maintains a diary that can be read to give players further insight into the game's strange events, and into April's mind as well. Lengthy conversations that seem tedious at first later serve to really make you care about the game's characters. They become more than simply people who exist to dispense items or tell you where to go next, and it's fascinating to watch April develop as she slowly absorbs the gravity of the situation into which she's been thrust. This game may seem like the longest--and most boring--journey at the beginning, but after a few hours adventure fans and anyone else who likes a good story will probably wish it would never end. (Note to readers: this game has an ESRB rating of Mature, and contains a lot of adult language.) --T. Byrl Baker Pros: - Outstanding production values
- Terrific writing
- Should run well on practically any computer
Cons: - Many of the puzzles are too contrived
- Game gets off to a slow start
Amazon.com Product Description
Originally released in Europe, The Longest Journey has earned international accolades as one of the best adventure games ever made. You play as April, an 18-year old art student who can travel between the twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia, shifting between realities as if stepping through a doorway. Save the balance among the worlds, between order and chaos, science and magic. Along the way, you will discover more than 100 unique locations and encounter more than 50 characters. In this point-and-click adventure game, you will be asked to solve a variety of story-related puzzles. Each scene is displayed using more than 16 million colors, and the characters are rendered in real time and consist of more than 1000 polygons each.
Product Description
The Longest Journey is a fantastic science fiction/fantasy adventure seen through the eyes of April Ryan. Her destiny is to start a journey where she travels between two worlds to save mankind from total destruction. April's charming personality and street-smart attitude is her only weapon against evil forces. April Ryan pulls you into the game, making you a part of the adventure as you interact with her friends, enemies and the environment as the amazing journey unfolds in front of you.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 192 more reviews...
 Great Game March 25, 2008
Excellent game. I loved the fact that you can't get killed, not matter what you do wrong. There is a LOT of needless profanity, but enjoyable adventure. It got a bit gabby at times but you have the option of skipping parts of those conversations. I also loved that it was not an adventure game that you could sit down and finish in one day. It is long, but if I'm going to fork out the bucks, it better be.
A masterpiece June 3, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This game is simply one of the best PC games, and the best PC adventure game, ever made.
I first heard about this game after playing and enjoying Syberia I and II. They are similar point-and-click adventure puzzle-solving games, with a strong central character and intriguing storyline. However, I quickly discovered that, if the Syberia titles are thought of as appetizing hors d'oeuvres, then The Longest Journey is a full five-course meal with all the trimmings!
The main reason this game stands out compared with other adventure games is the extremely deep storyline and characters. There is lots of dialogue, so it is not for people with short attention spans. The voice-acting is absolutely superb. The actress who plays April Ryan, the central character, deserved an Oscar (if such things exist for PC game acting).
April is the lynchpin of the whole game, and if you are like me you will quickly fall in love with her. What makes her so appealing is her whacky sense of humour. April is always wise-cracking, and is guaranteed to make you crack up even when all she is doing is routine game-mechanic stuff like: you can't go through that door, you can't combine those objects, etc. The many other characters she meets in the course of her adventures are also well-acted and often extremely comical.
The fact that the game doesn't take itself too seriously helps the player come to terms with the hocus-pocus storyline and often highly improbable situations and puzzles. That said, the story, which takes many hours to complete, is also extremely deep, absorbing and often moving. April proves herself to be a genuine heroine, who triumphs against her own insecurity as well as the many bizarre challenges she faces in the course of her travels.
Without wanting to give too much away, it's an epic Wizard-of-Oz, Alice-in-Wonderland style fantasy adventure, where April goes to all sorts of weird and wonderful places and meets all sorts of weird and wonderful characters and creatures. Along the way she has to save the world, which involves getting out of one sticky situation after another.
You'll notice that so far I have heaped all this praise on the game without even touching on the actual gameplay! If you've played inventory-based, point-and-click adventures, then The Longest Journey's game mechanics are a pretty standard affair, but great fun for all that. In general I found that the puzzles were not-too-easy and not-too-difficult. They were nicely-challenging without becoming frustrating. True, there is one particularly notorious puzzle near the start, but you'll crack it with patience.
If you enjoy this game as much as I did you will feel emotionally drained at the end of it. I was sad when it was all over, and missed April and her friends. I hope that the recently released sequel, Dreamfall, will capture at least some of the magic of this wonderful game.
Quick Tip: February 15, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you are considering buying this game but are apprehensive because of complaints of too much dialogue or walking time, there's an extremely easy way to fix it so the game goes much quicker:
-there is a SUBTITLES option in the options menu
-you can press ESCAPE to skip through animations or dialogue
With the subtitles on you can just read through the dialogues, then press escape when you're done- it makes things go waaaay quicker. Escape also allows you to skip walking around and other animations, so it takes barely any time to go long distances. That said, you have to be careful not to miss something because you're going too fast, and its worth it to listen to the dialogue every once in a while because its (for the most part) well written and generally well acted as well.
This is definitely one of the better games I've ever played, and worth the time just for the story. It was very easy to become attached to the characters- I soon found myself whistling for Crow even when he was not needed in the hopes of having a little chat. :-) The puzzles are generally fairly straightforward, with only a very few being obtuse to the point of annoyance. Some of them are actually a little contrived, but like I said- what really made the game was the personalities. Extremely enjoyable and highly recommended.
 Yack Yack Yack January 9, 2006
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This game is nice, good puzzles and problem solving skills. The problem....too much TALKING....alot of what some of the characters have to say is purely BORING. Keep the dialoge direct and to the point the game would have been much better. Not one of their better games.
Great Game March 1, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm normally a strategy gamer but I heard so much about The Longest Journey, I decided to try it. I bought it used from Amazon, and have been playing it nonstop since I received it.
The story is excellent so far - it could stand on its own as a fantasy novel. The writing is great. Some people have criticized the game for the use of 4 letter words, but the dialog really reflects the way young people speak. Most people, if they're honest, will admit that they spoke that way when they were 20.
My only quibble with the game is that some of the solutions to the puzzles were too obscure. I believe that, without internet access, lots of players will not be able to finish the game. This would be a shame, as the story and dialog are so good, everyone who plays should be allowed to play through to the end, even if they can't solve the puzzles.
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